Kailash Satyarthi

Kailash Satyarthi (The child saviour of India)

Kailash Satyarthi was Born as Kailash Sharma, on 11 January 1954, in the Vidisha district of central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, he changed his surname to Satyarthi (meaning ‘seeker of truth’).

The life changing experience

Satyarthi saw a boy of his age sitting with his father, a cobbler mending shoes.he asked his teacher about the boy,his teacher refused to answer. Satyarthi asked it to the headmaster and he said since cobbler was poor therefore he could not send his son to school and it was normal for the poor to not attend school. Unsatisfied with the answer Satyarthi asked the cobbler himself why he didn’t send his son to school. He was told that there are certain children who are “born to work”.He still didn't like this idea and started thinking to change the condition of those boys.

Education

He attended Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Vidhisha, and completed his degree in electrical engineering at Samrat Ashok Technological Institute, Vidisha and a post-graduate degree in high-voltage engineering. He then joined a college in Bhopal as a lecturer for a few years.

Work

In 1980, he gave up his career as an electrical engineer and became secretary general for the Bonded Labor Liberation Front; he also founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement) that year.

Humanitarian activities

In addition, he established GoodWeave International (formerly known as Rugmark) as the first voluntary labelling, monitoring and certification system of rugs manufactured without the use of child-labour in South Asia.This latter organisation operated a campaign in Europe and the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the intent of raising consumer awareness of the issues relating to the accountability of global corporations with regard to socially responsible consumerism and trade.Satyarthi has highlighted child labor as a human rights issue as well as a welfare matter and charitable cause. He has argued that it perpetuates poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, and other social problems, and his claims have been supported by several studies.He has also had a role in linking the movement against child labour with efforts for achieving "Education for All".He has been a member of a UNESCO body established to examine this and has been on the board of the Fast Track Initiative (now known as the Global Partnership for Education). Satyarthi serves on the board and committee of several international organisations including the Center for Victims of Torture (USA), the International Labor Rights Fund (USA), and the International Cocoa Foundation. He is now reportedly working on bringing child labour and slavery into the post-2015 development agenda for the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals.

Nobel prize

Satyarthi, along with Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education". Satyarthi is the fifth Nobel Prize laureate for India and only the second Indian laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize after Mother Teresa in 1979.

My view

Because of his continuous effort, many of the children have become free from child labor, slavery and focusing over getting education to achieve their goal.